Daddy's Little Angel
by gibby101
Summary: Sirius Black was once a family man,that all changed the night Lily and James Potter were killed by Voldemort.Three year old Abbie Black was sent to live with her mother's cousin in LA and finds herself back in England 11 years later. Two xovers inside
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: In which our story begins, and a child is born**

"Not....pant pant...AGAIN!!! SIRIUS BLACK YOU ARE A DEAD MAN WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!!!!!!!!"

Emma Black was in pain. It was that simple. If only her husband could see it from her point of view, because if you've ever been in labor for five hours, you'd be in a lot of pain too. Then the pain was worse. The nurse from St. Mungo's was telling her to push, and the pain was unbearable. Then she stopped screaming, the still air was broken by the shrill cries of a newborn baby.

"Congratulations Mrs. Black, you have a daughter." Those were the words that would change her life forever. Of course, she'd have to name the bundle of joy the healer had just handed her, but she decided to wait for her husband to be present before deciding on a name for their first child.

Out in the waiting room the said husband heard his wife's shrieks and groaned.

"Padfoot mate, you're probably going to be sleeping on the couch and changing diapers for weeks."

"Shut it James. You'll have the same problems when you and Lily have kids."

After a few minutes of resting, Emma pushed her curling brown hair out of her eyes and asked "Can you send my husband in please?"

"Of course ma'am." Stepping out into the waiting room Nurse Plum looked over the two men and timidly called out "Mr. Black?"

Sirius lifted his head from his hands, the screaming had stopped about five minutes ago he had begun to worry. "Yes?" he croaked, his voice sounding hoarse.

"Your wife would like you to join her, so you can name your daughter."

"Daughter? As in a little girl?"

"Yes sir. Your wife had a girl."

"WAHOOOOO!!A GIRL!! OH BOY OH BOY!!" Then it hit him. "Awe shit. That means I'm gonna be put on diaper duty for weeks now." James just laughed Lily, who had just come in when the nurse said that Sirius and Emma had a daughter, whacked James' head and told him to behave.

Inside the delivery room Emma held the baby, and watched her sleep. "Hey." Looking up she saw her husband slip into the room. "Want to hold your daughter?"

"I'll take my little girl." Walking to the bed he took the baby from his wife "Have you named her yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you."

"Can I name our daughter?"

"Of course you can. BUT I don't want you naming her anything like..."

"Nymphdora?"

"Exactly! I want to know what your cousin was thinking when she named her daughter that."

"She probably wasn't thinking when she named Tonks. That's what Andromeda does best, not think!"

"Seriously though, no punning!" Emma jabbed her free index finger in her husband's face. "We need a good name for her."

"I was thinking maybe Abigail Elizabeth. Abbie for short. What do you think?"

"It's perfect. Welcome to the world Abigail Elizabeth Black."

Two weeks later Albus Dumbledore approached the Black family while they were visiting Emma's cousin in Los Angeles.

"Sirius, Emma I know that will be hard for you to hear, but with the way the war is going, and Lily and James' child in danger, it would be best if you picked out a guardian for your daughter if something should happen to either of you."

"You know that we already appointed Remus as godfather and Lily as godmother. Why should we change that?" Sirius was confused.

"Lord Voldemort is after the Potters, and Lily would be unable to care for Abbie in hiding, and Remus may I remind you is a werewolf. The Ministry of Magic would, unfortunately appoint Remus as her legal guardian until she was old enough to use magic if something goes wrong on the full moon. Even then they would be skeptical of allowing her to live with him. Think rationally Sirius, you don't want your daughter to be raised by Narcissa or Bellatrix do you? Wouldn't you prefer to have her raised by someone like Andromeda or Emma's cousin Johnny?"

"Sirius, Hun, Dumbledore has a point. If we would ever be killed in a war, I would want my baby to be raised as far away from the fighting as possible. Like maybe here in LA for example. All Johnny would have to do is hire a sitter to watch Abbie while he works, or drop her off at daycare. She'd be perfectly safe from dark lords and your crazy family in the States."

Sirius sighed. He knew he'd lost this battle if his wife started calling his family crazy. She always thought on the bright side and tried to see the good in his crazy and psychotic family even when he couldn't. He sighed again. "Alright, we can change the wills and let everyone know." Seeing the look on his wife's face when he said 'everyone' he quickly added, "Just the people involved, Moony, Johnny, Lils. That everybody Hun."

"Alright." Agreed Emma, and the matter was settled. Everyone involved knew of the changes and respected Sirius and Emma's wishes, they never challenged the decision and for that the small Black family was thankful for.

Two years later it was if the meeting with Dumbledore had never happened. James and Lily had their own baby, Harry and he was like Abbie's little brother. Everywhere Abbie went Harry followed her, and got in trouble for following her into the bathroom. Harry's first Halloween was fast approaching, and Abbie couldn't wait to show him the Muggle tradition of trick-or-treating. But then James and Lily went into hiding and Abbie and Harry couldn't see each other. Little did they know it would be ten years before either of them talked again. But that didn't stop them from sending toys back and forth through Sirius. Then on Halloween the unthinkable happened. Lily and James were killed by Voldemort, and Harry had somehow survived. Sirius went to get his godson, but came back without him; Abbie slept through all the chaos. The next day the Black family was out to lunch when Peter Pettigrew showed up, and trouble started.

"Sirius! How could you?! Lily and James, Sirius!" a voice cried out from the crowded street.

Sirius looked up from his lunch, and handed his daughter to his wife.

"How could I what Peter? I wasn't even near them last night! I went to get Harry, but he was already gone!" Sirius took Abbie back and placed her in her stroller next to the table. Emma watched as her husband walked into the street and advanced on his friend. Without realizing it she cried out "Be careful honey!"

Pettigrew was now confused, but then he had an idea, and he could make things work in his favor. He pulled his wand out pointed it at Emma and muttered "_Avada_ _Kedavra_". The killing curse hit her before she could react, and she fell in front of her daughter's stroller.

"Mama? Mama wake up! MAMA!! WHY WON"T YOU WAKE UP?!" Abbie threw her Sippy cup at her mother's head, and when she wasn't yelled at for doing this she began to wail and she didn't stop screaming "MAMA WAKE UP!" Her father looked at his fallen wife and a look of pure fury was etched across his face.

"What have you done Peter? Does killing my wife make things better Peter? Will it bring Lily and James back? The answer is obviously no." Sirius pulled out his wand and stared into the eyes of Peter Pettigrew, and in a low voice said "You'll pay dearly for taking my wife from me. You don't even know the definition of pain, but you will when I'm finished with you." He lifted his wand, and prepared to use the Imperious Curse, but before he could utter a word, Peter blew up the street behind him. Ministry officials began showing up moments later, and they saw Sirius Black laughing his head off, his wife dead, and his two year old daughter screaming for her dead mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Learning the Truth about Dad

_Ten Years Later_

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Abbie. Happy Birthday to you!" Out of tune voices, all male, finished singing, and one off key voice sang out "Happy Birthday to you, you live in a zoo. You look like a monkey and you smell like one too!" the owner of the voice was roughly 5'10" and had brown curly hair, and a thick handlebar mustache. The rest of the out of tune voices cried out "Chet!"

One voice belonging to Captain Stanley, asked "Can't you ever behave yourself Kelly?"

"Yeah Uncle Chet! Can't you ever behave? I mean you pull pranks on the guys on a daily basis, but can't you be nice on my birthday for once?" an eleven year old Abbie asked.

Chet looked at his 'niece' "Nope sweetie, I can't ever be a good boy. I'm only good right before Christmas."

"Chet, can you stop trying to make my daughter mad? Cap probably doesn't want another cake fight this year." Johnny Gage put his arm around his 'daughter' and looked at his co-worker.

"But Daaaaaddy! We have a cake fight every year!" Abbie twisted her head so that she was looking straight up into her father's face.

Johnny squatted down to his daughter's level "Sweetheart that only happens because Chet gets you mad, and you scoop up some cake and throw it at him."

Abbie giggled and scooped up some frosting off of the cake. She shoved it into her father's face and laughed even harder. "_**THAT**_ was our official cake fight this year!" Abbie laughed so hard she fell off of the stool she had been sitting on.

Johnny looked at his daughter as though she had grown another head, and had turned blue. He shook his head and said "Chet put you up to this didn't he?"

Roy DeSoto, Johnny's partner, spoke up in Chet's defense. "No I did."

Johnny turned his head and looked at Roy. "You! You did this! Why would you do that Roy?"

Roy shook his head and moved away from the wall "Because, Junior I knew you'd blame Chet for it. And blame Chet you did. I got my entertainment for the day, and I managed to keep my uniform clean."

Johnny shook his head "Oh yeah. Well take this Mr. Clean Uniform!" Johnny scooped up a piece of cake and threw it at Roy. Soon everyone was participating in the Eighth Annual Station 51 Cake Fight. Everyone except for two people.

Abbie and Chet had snuck out during the confusion, and met in Captain Stanley's office. Abbie was laughing hard, and she had to breathe slowly just to speak. "That was priceless Chet! We should have thought of it years ago! Dad would have thought Uncle Roy really had put me up to it!"

Chet smiled and replied "Ehh. It was no problem kid. I just wanted to throw your dad off this year. It's gonna take him awhile to realize that I put Roy up to saying he had put you up to it."

Abbie looked at Chet confused for a minute. "I have no idea as to what you are saying, but it sounded like Dad's never gonna figure this out unless me, you, or Uncle Roy tells him what really happened."

"ABBIE! Phone call for you from Rampart!" Cap. Stanley's voice cried out over the confusion in the kitchen.

Abbie jumped up off of Cap's desk and booked it into the kitchen. She grabbed the phone from Marco and said "Hello."

"Abbie!"

"Hey Happy Birthday Kiddo!"

"She's 11 already! Get me into a retirement home STAT!"

Three voices rang out at once, and even though it was confusing to understand the three adults on the line Abbie knew who it was. "Dr. Early, Dr. Brackett, Nurse McCall! It's good to hear from you." Abbie pointed at a barstool on the other side of the room, and motioned for somebody to bring it over to her. When Mike brought it over she sat down before continuing. "Dad and Roy will be around later to restock. Cap won't let them leave until they clean up this year's cake fight."

Dixie laughed "You guys had a cake fight again this year?"

Abbie looked over her shoulder before continuing. "Yeah, I'll tell how it started when I get to work." It was another two years later, and the cake fight was caused the same way as it had been on Abbie's 11th birthday. "Dad still hasn't figured out how we pulled this one."

On the other end of the line Dixie nodded and replied, "It's gonna take a while for your father to figure it out. Johnny can take his time when it comes to figuring out what you and Chet do."

"Kay. I gotta go. Dad's ready to drive me over now." Abbie hung up the phone, and made her way out to the bay. She climbed into the passenger's side of the squad, and closed the door. "Hey Dad?"

Johnny opened the door to the squad. "Yeah kiddo?"

"Um, I know that I'm adopted, but um... Do you know what happened to my birth parents?"

Johnny was about to answer when Cap walked out of his office and called "Gage!"

Abbie and Johnny both looked at him and simultaneously answered "Yeah Cap?"

Captain Stanly looked at them and shook his head. "Knock it off. You guys have a ride-a-long today." He pointed over his shoulder to Roy and a thin looking man who were talking in the office. "He's a reporter from England, and this is an assignment he has. He's got to compare fire station operations in Europe and in the US. I'm going to tell Kelly and you two this now. NO pranks, no jokes and absolutely NO cake fights after dinner. This guy is going to be here for two shifts, so I want you on your best behavior." Cap walked off to go grill Chet, and Abbie looked at her father.

"_I'm_ not sitting next to him for that long am I?"

Johnny looked from his daughter to the men in the office, and back again. "Don't worry kiddo, it's only until we drop you off. So let's get them, and we'll be on our way." He leaned in through the open driver's door window and honked the horn, before calling out "Roy! Let's go! Abbie's shift starts in twenty minutes, and she's gonna be late on her first day!"

Roy looked at his partner and yelled back, "Take it easy! We're coming!" He and the reporter came out to the garage. Just as Roy reached the squad, the call alarm went off.

"Squad 51. Squad 51. Accident inside Paramount Studious on Sound Stage 21. Accident on Sound Stage 21. See the director. Call time 11:30" The call died out as Cap answered it.

"Squad 51 10-4 KMG 3-6-5."

Abbie slid into the middle seat as Roy, Johnny, and the reporter all climbed in to the cab of the squad. Marco handed the directions to the studio to Roy who handed them to Abbie who passed them to the reporter, who forked them over to a very squished Johnny.

On the way to the studio the guest from London tried to strike up conversation. "So do you always take her with you on calls?" He tilted his head toward Abbie, who shot the man a very dirty look. She also would have shown him a very pretty birdie, but her father was present.

Roy answered him. "No. She just started a volunteer job over at Rampart Emergency. We were going to drop her off, but that call came in. She's going to stay there when we drop off any patients from the sound stage."

"Oh," was all the man had to say. He looked at Abbie and asked "How old are you miss?"

Abbie rolled her eyes, and was elbowed by Roy who shot her a 'be nice young lady' look. "I'm 13."

The curious man nodded and muttered to himself "That's about right. Pad's daughter should be a teenager next week." Out loud he asked her "When was your birthday?

Abbie answered him in a tone that screamed LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE! "It's next week, but we celebrate it early. Okay?" She then shot a look at Roy that screamed HELP! Roy just shook his head at her.

"Johnny?" Roy asked

"Yeah Roy?" Johnny replied.

"When do I turn to get to the studios?"

"Next left after these lights."

Abbie kept looking at the men sitting next to her. "I know you from somewhere but I can't remember. It's like I knew you when I was really little, like when I was two." She kept looking at him and was surprised when he replied.

"That's because _you did_ know me when you were two Little Foot." He replied. That did it. Abbie remembered who he was.

"Uncle Remus!" She threw her arms around her uncle and hugged him. She squeezed, and hung on for a while. When she let go, there were tears in her eyes, and she was smiling. She wiped her eyes and was about to talk when Johnny spoke.

"We're here. Sorry folks but your reunion is gonna have to wait." The guard in the guard house waved the squad through, and said that he already had called an ambulance. Roy drove the squad into the lot, and kept going until he saw the sound stage they were looking for. "Roy you grab the drug box. Abbie you grab the bio-phone and you can be the go between. And Mr. uh. Well you can watch but you have to stay out of my way. Okay?" Remus nodded. "Good here we go."

They walked across the lot to the building. The sign on the side of it said "Sound Stage 21 Lot B", and on the door it said "Closed Set. Cast Entrance Only". The call took no time, just a slight concussion on the head of one of the children who had been in the wrong spot when a sandbag fell from the catwalk.

A half-hour later the squad pulled up at Rampart General Hospital and Abbie hopped out of the cab. She was glad that Roy went in the ambulance with the little girl with the concussion. That meant the cab wasn't so squished. But that meant that she would have to spend a couple of hours listening to the new nurses complaining about Dix and her 'you have to earn longer breaks policy'. Abbie didn't have a problem with Dixie. Dixie and her dad had flirted for years and Abbie had taken a shine to Dixie at an early age. As she walked into the hospital she adjusted her brand new Candy-Stripper uniform (with a few tweaks from her fashion conscious baby-sitter) and said "Good Afternoon Ms. McCall" to Dixie as she read over the charts for the afternoon.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Truth About Daddy...Part 2

Abbie was exhausted when her Dad came and picked her up. There had been a brush fire in the Sierra Nevada's and many of the patients ended up at Rampart. Abbie had been given two hour long breaks to make up for the fact that she was the youngest person there. The other Candy-Strippers bailed out early using stupid things like 'I have homework' or Abbie's personal favorite 'My Mom is in the hospital. She just had another baby.' First of all the homework excuse was bogus, after all it was in the middle of friggin July, and Sara's mom had just had another baby three months ago; Abbie had seen her at the grocery store the day before. But whatever, at least Abbie was getting _**PAID**_to stay after hours.

Abbie collapsed onto the couch and picked up the phone book. She skimmed her way through it until she came across the hotel sections. "Hey Dad?"

Johnny looked up from the magazine he was reading and replied "Hey what?"

Abbie rolled her eyes at her father and asked "Do you know which hotel Uncle Remus is staying in?"

"Nope. But I think he said something about the West Coast Academy. Whatever that means." Johnny went back to his magazine when he remembered something that his cousin Emma had mentioned when she had visited him thirteen years ago. "_Don't worry about us Johnny. The three of us have a place to stay at the West Coast Academy Inn._" Then he remembered the extremely important thing. His cousin came from a prestigious American wizardry family. And she married a wizard. This meant that the 13 year old in his living room was a witch. A 100% bonnafied witch. Crap. Johnny's day had just reached what he thought was an all time low. Boy was he wrong.

An hour later there was a knock on their apartment door. Abbie sprang up from the couch to answer it. Standing in the door way was Remus Lupin, her uncle. "Uncle Remus! What a surprise! Won't you come in?" Abbie opened the door to the apartment all the way and ushered her uncle and his companion in to the living room. "Let me tell Dad you're here and you and um..., your friend can get comfy in the living room." Abbie popped her head around the corner into the kitchen of their large apartment, and muttered, "Uncle Remus and some chick are in the living room, wanna come and talk things out?"

Johnny put his magazine on the kitchen table; it was hopeless to think he'd finish it tonight. "Talk what out Sweetie?"

Abbie rolled her eyes. "Duuhh. The biological parent thing I talked about earlier. You know I know I'm adopted; Remus is my godfather, and my godmother's dead, and school and vacation locations. Just the daughter who just found about her family in England kinda wanting to spend time with said newly discovered family type of stuff."

Johnny got out of the chair he was in and opened the fridge. "Oh that stuff. The kid leaves her Dad in one country and goes to the other and lives with her godfather, and goes to a boarding school in Scotland and teases the hell out of her cousin a year behind her, kind of stuff. Right?" He pulled out a bottle of beer and took a swig out of the bottle as he closed the door.

Abbie looked really guilty at this. "Maybe, or it's your daughter wants to meet the family she can't remember at all type of stuff." Abbie opened the fridge and took out two bottles of water and a soda for herself. She closed the door and walked across the room, and snagged a bag of chips off of the counter on her way out the kitchen door.

Back in the living room Remus and his companion surveyed the living room. It was modestly decorated, and had a slight masculine touch in an overall feel of the room. The walls were a cream color, with a few tasteful art pieces spread out on the walls. One wall was dedicated to photographs; there were plenty of Johnny and Abbie, and plenty of the staff of the firehouse and the ER team they worked with on a regular basis. But in the middle of the picture wall was a slightly faded picture of three adults, two men, one woman, and a little baby girl. Remus got up and looked at it more closely. He was stunned, because he thought that all copies of that particular picture were missing.

One of the men was Johnny, it was very easy to see that, he hadn't changed in twelve years, but the other man was Sirius Black, Remus' former friend. He was unmistakable to recognize, his shoulder length black hair, grey eyes, laughing smile, and yet in this picture there was a look of gentleness on his face that Remus had never seen on his former friends face. He followed the path of the gaze to the little baby girl he held in his arms, the bundle of pink and ribbons, the enormous grin on her face, her arms stretching upwards to try and grab her father's hair. The poor girl who didn't know that in a year's time from that picture her only family would be the man to her father's left, Remus stopped himself from thinking any further. He instead focused in on Emma, her curly chestnut brown hair spiraling down past her shoulders, laughing at something the baby had done. Her hazel eyes were forever crinkled in laughter, and her arms wrapped around her husband's shoulders, and her gaze, as well as Johnny's and Sirius' was on the baby. The one person that would always tie those two families together, walked into the room carrying water and a soda. And watched her godfather stare at her favorite picture in the whole apartment.

"Do you want a copy of the picture?"

Remus jumped when he heard Abbie's voice. "Wh-a-a-...?"

Abbie laughed at him. She set the drinks and chips down on the coffee table and repeated her question. "Would you like a copy of that picture? I have six more in my room if you do."

A grin broke out on Remus' face. "I'd love that. I haven't seen a picture of the three of you in over ten years! They were all moved to the Black vault in Gringotts after..., well after you came to the states, when they cleaned out the house."

Abbie nodded and plopped herself down into an armchair as Johnny walked into the room, and she was quickly reprimanded for 'abusing that poor chair with her large behind'. She then in turn told him she was doing no such thing, because 'he abused the poor treadmill in the gym by putting his enormous body on it and running for a half minute before turning the speed down to an extremely slow walk'. Remus hid a hurting smile, because this was the typical banter he used to hear around James and Sirius in the old days. The types of banters where his name would be thrown in at random, and he'd be mixed up in it in no time. Now it just hurt to listen to it, but he didn't say anything. After a few minutes of the mindless banter Johnny stopped it and disappeared in to the kitchen muttering something about ordering a couple of pizzas.

"Well Uncle Remus, if you couldn't get anything out of our rambles my Dad is getting us dinner and is willing to let me go back to England whenever I want to. But first I'm kinda curious as to who your friend is."

Remus somewhat mentally jumped at his rudeness of not introducing his companion. "This is your mother's friend Mary O'Malley; she was in Gryffindor with us."

Mary smiled at her friend Emma's daughter; just by looking at the girl Mary could see everything that made her like her parents. Her mother's compassion, kindness, and thoughtfulness. Her father's sense of humor, brains, and appetite, his love for pranks, jokes and anything involving sugar. Mary liked the girl already, and hadn't even said hello yet...oops. "Hello lassie. Ya look jus' like ya ma, but ya 'ave ya father's soul, and love of pranks." Her heavy Irish brogue accented her speech heavily, and made Abbie think of her long dead mother.

"Thanks, I guess, did you know her well then?" Abbie thrust her hand into the open bag of Lays, and took a handful of chips.

"She was like a sister ta me. We got along great, and she kept the peace between Lilly an' James in their firs' and second years. An' she was a great person to tell all of ya secrets ta." Mary was traveling down memory lane at a lovely pace, forgetting where she was. "Always there for ya even if ya wanted to be alone."

Remus smiled and plowed on into business. He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and gave it to Abbie to read. "I think you'll find everything you need to know is enclosed in this envelope. You're slightly delayed Hogwarts letter, and all the legal documents that will enable you to access the Black family vaults. It also contains the keys to the vaults, houses, and the motorcycle that were left in your possession."

Abbie accepted the bulging envelope and opened it. Two separate letters fell out, along with a key ring. She carefully replaced the key ring in the original envelope. She opened the Hogwarts letter, and pulled out the sheets of parchment and unfolded them and began to read them. Her eyebrows went up slightly, as she read the standard book list, and mouthed out her supply list. Without noticing she silently summoned a notebook and a pen. She picked up the pen and copied her supplies, and continued to read the book lists. Again without noticing she waved her hand and her pen wrote what she was thinking. Remus was amazed. She was performing difficult spells with ease, and wasn't even aware of it. She finished the first and second year book lists and pulled out her third year book list. And laughed, and laughed and laughed. Remus wanted to know what was so amusing. So he did what any Marauder would do, he asked her.

"What's so funny?"

"Whoever the DADA professor is this year sure likes this guy." She was acknowledging the complete set of Lockhart books on her list. She went back to the letters and the magic kept going, and the pages in the notebook turned themselves. She picked up the other envelope and read the legal papers inside the envelope. On the notebook page it was translated into plain English for her to read later, and she plowed through all the legal mumbo jumbo without a problem. Johnny came back in to the living room and said nothing about the moving pen and paper, Remus concluded that this happened often while Abbie was studying or doing homework. She finished with her mother's will and proceeded into the papers that justified her father's incarceration. She flipped through the first few pages, and the pen stopped moving as a confused look came over her face. She kept flipping back and forth between certain pages and was frustrated. Remus was the first to pick up on it.

"What's wrong Abs?"

"There's something wrong with these documents. It says here on page 12 on paragraph 6 in sub paragraph B that all notes on the trial are on page 20, starting at paragraph 25, but it only goes up to page 18, and there's no other papers in the envelope, and the end of page 18 is halfway down the page, so that means that there are no more pages. If Dad had a trial his lawyer would have enclosed the transcripts, but there's nothing here, no mentions of a lawyer hired for the defendant, no court date, just a sentence, and that's it. Hell it barely mentions the custody status for me. It just says 'The Court rules that the toddler known as Abigail Elizabeth Black, heir to the Black family is not to placed in the custody of her godfather Remus Lupin, a known werewolf. Instead the court awards custody to one John Edward Gage of Los Angles California, America. Anyone wishing to change custody arrangements may not appeal to the courts for the next four months.' That's it, and then it says that I was formally adopted by Johnny. That's it."

"No trial. Why's that weird?" Remus inquired.

"It's a violation of his rights! The first amendment says that all persons are entitled to a trial by their peers, regardless of if they can afford a lawyer or not. He should have had a trial."

"Right love, but he wasn't tried in America. Remember that when we're back in England, and just so you know, even if there had been a trial, he'd still be in jail. There was too much evidence against him in the first place." Remus said glumly. Even though Remus had long ago given up on Padfoot, but, this discovery, it gave him hope for some reason, it made him think that after all of these years that he could free his remaining friend. "Let me see those notes you've been taking."

"What notes?" Abbie looked around to see what Remus was talking about, and then saw she had done it again, and there on the table was a notebook full of the deciphered transcripts, and her supplies. "Jeez! I did it again; I do this when I study for tests, do homework, and whenever I concentrate too hard on anything. Here you go." She handed the notebook to Remus on the couch and continued to read the transcripts, as the pen fought off Remus.

"Abbie, a little help?" Abbie looked up at Remus and waved her hand. The pen fell back to the coffee table with a thud, and they continued on.

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Two hours later, along with four pizzas, two cases of Coke and a case of Poland Springs water, they came to the conclusion the Sirius Orion Black was innocent, but they needed a lawyer to back up their claims. Mary had to leave for England in the morning, so she had left almost an hour and a half before Remus and Abbie had finished their research. Abbie had changed into sweatpants, and a tank top, and was curled up in her armchair. Her hair swept up off her neck and face in a high ponytail, and she chewed on the end of her pen as she flipped through her large pile of notes.

Johnny couldn't help being reminded of his cousin Emma. Abbie was a miniature Emma in looks, but her personality was a split of both of her parents. Emma's dedications to her studies, family, friends, her senses of duty, her heart in the right place, and her temperament all were characteristics she had passed on to her daughter. Sirius' love of jokes, pranks, food, and dogs was prominent. And so was his little secret, you know the "Padfoot" thing. For some reason, from the age of two on Abbie had possessed the ability to transform herself into a beautiful black cocker spaniel, a complete contrast to her hair color. The only thing that stayed the same was the curly fur on her ears; they resembled her hair in pigtails. Johnny was shaken out of his musings as the phone rang.

Remus jumped as he heard a strange noise. It rang and then there was silence, and then it rang again. Johnny was up and grabbed the funny shaped object that Remus recognized as a telephone from Muggle Studies, it had buttons on the front, and the part you spoke into was in the cradle next to it. Remus was surprised when Johnny picked the buttoned part up, pushed a button and the ringing noise stopped.

Johnny picked up the cordless phone, and pressed the TALK button as he answered it. "Hello, Gage apartment."

On the other line was Captain Stanley. "John, it's Captain Stanley."

"What's up Cap?" Johnny moved from the living room to the kitchen getting a raised eyebrow from his daughter, and a confused look from their guest.

"We need you to come in for this shift, I'm sorry but the other paramedic went home with the flu...Oh crap." The phone on the other end fell silent for a moment, and the sound of retching could be heard.

"Sure I'm coming." Johnny hung up the phone, and walked out of the kitchen. He put the phone back in its charger, and turned back to the two spread out in his living room. "I've got to head into the station."

Abbie's head snapped up faster than Remus thought possible. "What? Why?"

"Cap just called and said both of the guys on duty now have the flu, and he has it too. Roy's gonna meet me there, and if you need me just call the station." Now Johnny and Abbie were both nervous about this new arrangement. Abbie, being just shy of thirteen, had never been left alone at the apartment when her father was on call. She'd always stayed with Dixie or her babysitter Cordelia. Now this would be a test for the girl, being alone for a large amount of time, unless Remus would stay with her. _Now that's a good idea. Why didn't I think of that before?_ Johnny thought to himself. "Remus can I ask you to stay with Abbie for the night? Her usual sitter has a work thing to go to tonight and we weren't expecting me to get called in to work."

Remus looked up from his paperwork again. "Of course I'll stay. I need to work on my story anyways. And if I have any questions I can just ask Abbie."

Abbie jumped into the conversation. "You're actually doing that story?"

"Yes, I am actually writing that story. I'm working for a newspaper in London right now, and if my editor likes the story, it will be syndicated to every Muggle paper in England, through his office at the London Times. And if that goes well, it may wind its way into a special issue of _The Daily Prophet_. That particular issue specializes on Muggle newspaper articles written by wizards."

"Cool! Can I help you write it?" Abbie asked, starting, what Johnny knew would be one of her famous _Black Sugar Highs_, which happened after two cases of Coke, and four jumbo bags of candy. Johnny could see the multi-colored candy wrappers hiding under the couch, and he knew that Remus was in for a rough night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: In which our heroine leaves for London**

Johnny was out of the apartment by 6:30, and by 7:00 Remus and Abbie both had finished Remus' article and were going through the legal papers. Now they were both bored. Abbie was all for prank calling her father; a trait, Remus noted, that had come from Sirius. Remus, on the other hand forbade her from picking up the phone to call Johnny. He'd even gone as far as to placing a semi-permanent sticking charm on the phone. Abbie couldn't call anybody, but if the phone did ring, she would be able to pick up the phone to answer it, and after she hung up the phone would return its self to the charger. This meant that Abbie couldn't talk to Johnny until 9:30, when he would call to check up on her and Remus. Leaving Remus to deal with a severely hyper girl who unfortunately knew were all the candy was, and could continuously add to her sugar induced high. Unless, of course, Remus himself contacted Johnny to end the sugar high. Like he could ever figure out how to use the phone by himself before Abbie came back from the bathroom. Oh, well.

A half hour later Abbie was no longer hyper and was curled up in front of the TV watching reruns of M*A*S*H on TV Land. Remus sat with her amazed by the TV, and thought that M*A*S*H was very interesting; the only problem he had with it was that funny sounding laughter coming from the TV. Abbie called it the 'laugh track', and told him to get used to it, because many shows used it. During that particular episode of M*A*S*H, Five O'clock Charlie, Remus heard something move outside the window.

_Rustle, Rustle_

"Abbie, can you turn off the sound? I think I hear something moving outside the window," Remus said.

"Sure thing, Uncle Moony," Abbie picked up the remote and muted the volume, thankfully during a commercial; this was her favorite episode ever.

_Rustle, Rustle_

"There it is again. Do you think there's something in the bushes?" Remus inquired.

"Umm...Uncle Moony, we're on the fifth floor, not the first. There are no bushes for anyone to hide in..." Abbie was cut off as something outside of the kitchen exploded. Thinking quickly, Remus grabbed his goddaughter and thought of some where safe for them to go. Next thing Abbie knew, she felt like she was being pulled through a straw and everything went black.

* * *

Johnny was awakened by the alarm that called him and his fellow firefighters out of their warm and cozy beds. They had all fallen asleep very early, seeing as it was only 9:00, with half of the men were sick and they didn't want to risk it. Johnny zoned out on the address of the call as he and Roy stumbled in the squad and got the directions from Tony, the engineer from B Shift. Alan, one of the firefighters, answered the call as it went out to Stations 51, 67, and 99, along with Ladder 1, and the Fire Chief. Two ambulances were going to meet them at the scene.

As they got closer and closer to the scene Johnny was more alert. "Hey Roy?"

"Yeah Johnny."

"Isn't this _**MY**_ neighborhood?"

"I think it might be, why? Didn't you pay attention to where we're going?"

"Um...no. I was still... HOLY SHIT!"

The squad had turned onto Johnny's street, and it was a mess. The rements of the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of his building were spred out across the street. They had to leave the squad at the McDonald's on the corner, the debris were every where. People littered the streets and the cries of the wounded made Johnny's spine shiver. "Oh, crap. I can't do this Roy, I can't. What if we find her body in this mess? Why'd I leave her at home? Why?" Johnny was losing it, he was too worried about his daughter being dead, and he was focusing in on the negative, forgetting that he had left his daughter in the highly capable hands of a fully trained wizard, who also happened to be a werewolf.

"Johnny! Calm down, she's gonna be fine. Maybe she and Remus went out to get some pizza or went to the movies or something." '_Even in my ears'_, Roy thought '_that sounds like it didn't happen. I just hope she's okay, for the sake of every one involved in this mess. I hope to God that she's alive._'

The men got out and met with the Fire Chief, a small portly man named Finnegan. He was shouting orders into his Walkie-Talkie and calling for assistance from the National Guard. The two paramedics approached slowly as they surveyed the command center, in what used to be Salvatore Castiglione's Deli. Johnny refused to look at the alarming pile of bodies being stacked in front of the store.

"I don't give a damn about a tiny little standoff in West Hollywood! I NEED the National Guard NOW DAMN IT! I have an exploded apartment complex. Yes EXPLODED, and need help with stopping looters! Get any available officer to Lansdowne Street. I don't care if you can only spare four cars. Call more people in on duty then! We have a disaster to deal with here!" Finnegan shouted into his phone, and slammed it down. He noticed the two paramedics in the door way and cleared his throat. "What can I do for you boys?"

Johnny took a deep breath before he spoke. His voice came out throaty and strained, "I have to find my daughter before I can treat anyone. I gotta find her, Chief. She's all I've got." He chocked back a sob before continuing. "I live in that apartment building, on the fifth floor. I gotta know if she's alright." Johnny was now openly crying, and Captain Stanley and several other Captains stood behind the medics, wanting to enter the command center.

Captain Stanley came up and wrapped his arms around Johnny's shoulders as he cried. "I can't go on not knowing if she's dead or not. It's killing me now to think that half of my neighbors are dead right now, and I can't find my own kid." Johnny sank to floor, ripping himself from Cap's arms, sobbing into his hands.

The Chief looked alarmed at the sobbing paramedic in front of him. This was not something Thomas Finnegan was used to. He looked at Stanley and could see tears running down his dirt streaked face, and down the face of the other medic. This missing girl obviously meant something to the men of Station 51, and who was he to break up a little family such as this.

"Go and find her then boys, but you need to treat others as you work." Was all he had to say as he went back to giving orders.

* * *

Several hours later, each and every member of the Los Angles County Fire Department, the National Guard, and the LAPD came up empty handed while looking through the rubble for Abbie. Johnny was heartbroken, and with no body, and nothing of his daughter left, he began to plan her funeral. Something he figured, no parent should ever have to do, ever. He continued to treat those with injuries as he mentally prepared a check list of things he would need to do before the funeral, when an owl, yes an owl landed on an empty stretcher next to him. It was snow white, and clutched a letter in its beak. It dropped the letter and screeched, alerting Johnny to its presence. He picked up the letter as it continued to make noise, and looked at the address.

_Paramedic John Gage_

_Empty Stretcher #12_

_Los Angeles, CA, United States_

He shrugged his shoulders as he opened the envelope, and pulled out a sheet of parchment.

_Dear Daddy, _

_It's me, Abbie, and I'm fine okay. When whatever it was exploded, Remus grabbed me and we ended up in umm...hold on a second..._

_**We ended up here in London. I apologize for taking her so far away from home, but this was the first place I thought would be safe for us if anything happened.**_

_**-RJL**_

_Thanks Uncle Moony! Yeah, so anyways Daddy, I'm okay, and I have all of that paper work and junk with me. Uncle Moony says tomorrow we're going to the Ministry of Magic to figure this whole thing out. I didn't even know that this place existed! Just tell every one I'm okay, and far away from LA and crazy bombers! Lol. _

_Love ya!_

_Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo_

_Abbie._

Johnny sighed with relief. Sure his daughter was halfway around the world, but she was safe. He got up and ran towards the last place he had seen Roy, so he could show him Abbie's letter.

* * *

Hey look at that! I updated this! I've decided to continue with this story, seeing as I already have up to chapter 17 typed and ready to go. I just need to retweek some parts of it. After all, I haven't edited any parts of this since 2008. Thanks to surferdude8225 for looking over this and my other stories :) i'm thinking you guys will get a weekly update. I just need to decide on a day to update this story. As always REVIEWS are appreciated/expected of you. Thanks again! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: In which our heroine finds herself in a store full of candy…**

Abbie awoke the next morning in a strange bed, in a strange room, with a strange man sleeping on the floor. It took her a few minutes to remember she was in Room 11 at the Leaky Cauldron in London, with her uncle. The room they had booked had only one bed, and the room was tiny. The bed took up most of the room, there was a small fire place, and a giant mirror over the mantle. There was a small table with a bowl of water on it, and a towel to dry your face with.

Remus was sprawled out on the floor in front of the door, next to him in her backpack, were all the legal documents that they had looked over the night before, and Remus' story for his newspaper job. Abbie crawled out of the bed and stepped over her uncle, and walked down the hall to use the toilet. She passed several rooms, and was the only person up on the floor. She came back from the loo feeling relieved and managed to get back into the room without waking Remus.

Glancing at the small clock on the mantle, Abbie saw it was three pm, and then glanced at the watch on her own wrist. Six am, no wonder she was wide awake and hungry, she was still running on LA time as she usually got up a bit earlier than normal people. She picked up her bag and began to organize her paper work.

An hour later Remus finally woke up. Abbie had given up on him at three thirty, and had already eaten lunch down stairs, and was waiting for him to gain access to Diagon Alley. Remus was amazed when he learned this, and then remembered that the girl was still running on LA time. He thought he'd be the first one up, but apparently she was an early riser as well.

"Right, I'm going to eat, and then we can go in to the alley, and then after we shop for a bit, we will go to the Ministry to appeal your father's case."

"Kay," Was all Abbie said as she riffled through the papers. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong? Did we leave something important behind? Is something missing?" Remus asked, scared something was missing from the appeal.

"No, I broke a nail!" Abbie looked at Remus' face and laughed at him. "What, you thought I left stuff behind after all the work I put into it? Now I know why people think you're crazy!"

Remus rolled his eyes and swatted her over her head with his copy of the Daily Prophet that had been delivered to their room. On the front page, was a story about Harry Potter, and Abbie grabbed the paper out of her godfather's hand. "Hey! I was reading that, young lady!"

"Well now I am." She unrolled the paper and began to read the story. _**Boy-Who-Lived Defeats You-Know-Who Again!**_ "What's this all about _Uncle _Remus?" She stressed the 'uncle' part of his name because several patrons of the pub were giving them funny looks.

"I wouldn't know, Ab. I haven't read the paper yet, and I did just spend the past three days in America, mind you."

"Whatever," Abbie looked back at the paper and did a quick double take when she saw the picture of Harry move back and forth, with his two friends, as if dancing to some type of music.

_Earlier this month while most first year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were preparing for their end of year exams, Harry Potter has defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named yet again! While most of the details are being_ _with held by Headmaster Dumbledore, the Daily Prophet has learned that the struggle took place in the dungeons below the school, and that You-Know-Who was after the Sorcerer's Stone created by Nicholas Flammel. For more on the Sorcerer's Stone, please see page 4. For more on the actions of the Boy-Who-Lived, please see page 6._

"That was...well...short," Abbie looked up from the article and folded the paper back up and handed it to Remus who was finishing his bowl of oatmeal. "And extremely pointless."

"Ah yes, the _Prophet_ is well known for its frighteningly short articles, and sub articles that tie into tiny points mentioned in the story," Remus accepted the paper and then shoved it into the backpack. He got up and left some money on the table and they worked their way out to the alley. "Mind you, they are the only paper in the wizarding world that people will actually pay to read, unless you're one of those poor saps that will believe anything that's published in the Quibbler."

"Oh, well that sucks then. I'm glad that in LA we have at least two dozen different papers to choose from, and none of them can ever get a story right, because they all want the same story to be different then the other guy. But the comics are fun to read," Abbie pushed the back door open and stepped into the courtyard as Remus removed his wand from his pocket. He quickly tapped the appropriate bricks and the archway appeared.

"Welcome, my dear, to Diagon Alley. This is the busiest Wizarding market place in the world, and the home to Gringotts." Remus presented the street to Abbie with a some what comical flair. He mockingly bowed halfway as Abbie's giggle trailed off.

"Wow," was Abbie's only response. The large amount of people crammed into the brightly decorated street amazed her. The patrons of the shops were dressed in bright colors, and in every color imaginable. One woman was dressed in violet, lime green, and a pair of blue jeans, her hair was short, spiked and bubblegum pink. Her violet and lime green shirt had a logo on it, but Abbie couldn't see it. The woman looked from her to Remus and a confused look crossed her face, and then a sad smile replaced it. She then continued into the store she was heading into as if the brief encounter had never happened. _Gotta remember to ask Uncle Remus about her_ Abbie thought to herself as she and Remus advanced into the throng of early morning shoppers.

* * *

An hour later, Abbie and Remus reemerged from Gringotts and had filled their money sacks greatly. Abbie had spent a half hour being interrogated by the goblins when she had requested to make a withdrawal from the Black family vault. Apparently, the account was being watched by the Ministry of Magic, and if a withdrawal was made, they would be instantly alerted to it, and would summon the person who made the withdrawal to the Ministry. Abbie had to explain to the goblins that the Ministry was originally their next stop, and it had taken fifteen minutes for her to do that. She then had to prove to be a blood relation to the Black family to gain access to the vault, and that Remus was in fact who he said he was, and was her legal guardian in the Magical community. And then they were taken to the vault, on the ground floor of the bank so to say.

They went all the way down, past the dragon, all the way down to the oldest vaults known to wizard kind. Inside had been piles of gold, mounds of books and heaps of treasures. There were mounds of out-dated clothing, desks piled high with deeds to various properties, paintings of long dead lords, ladies and important dignitaries. The torches flared to life when Abbie entered, the vault recognizing a true Black, the paintings sprang to life, and the whispers from the portraits filled the chamber as Abbie scooped up a handful of gold and then left, silencing the portraits, and dosing the torches. She said nothing the entire trip down, or on the return trip, something had made her stay silent for a half hour, a silence that Remus was grateful for.

Once they were outside Abbie spoke up, "So, um, yeah, Uncle Remus, why did the goblins act all crazy when I said I was a Black?"

Remus sighed and looked down at his young charge. "The Black family is supposedly extinct kiddo. Your father is the last male heir to the Black family fortunes, and people forgot that your father once was married with a daughter. People either forgot that you and mother had existed, or pretended like your father's marriage had never happened. People are set in their ways when it comes to matters like this."

"Oh," Abbie's response was so quiet that Remus had almost missed it. Fortunately for him, somewhat, the full moon was in less than a week and his hearing was extremely improved. Abbie's head hung a bit and her dark brown hair fell like a curtain around her face. She was clearly upset and there was nothing Remus could do to make her feel better. Except free her father, now _there_ was something he might be able to do. His mood slightly brightened, and he pulled her off of the main part of the Alley.

"Come on, kiddo," Remus picked up the pace, and rushed them past various stores that seemed to appear out of nowhere. After ten minutes of weaving through the narrower and narrower street Remus stopped in front of a dull looking building. Abbie noticed that all of the buildings on this particular street were rather dull and modest looking. "Well here we are!" Remus pushed the door to the store open and entered.

"Where are we again, Uncle Remus?" Abbie asked as she followed Remus into what looked like an old fashioned ice cream parlor.

"We, my dear, are currently in what is known as the Marauder Magical Mischief Providers, Inc. This is the one place in Horizontal Alley that supplies jokesters and the studious alike. It's the only store on Horizontal Alley actually. Come to think of it, the only store this far from Diagon Alley that sells anything useful."

Abbie looked around at the empty store front in disbelief. "Um, Uncle Remus, this store is empty. There's nothing on the shelves, in the bins or on display. There's nobody managing a register, and there's no staff working here at all."

Remus turned around. Up until this point, he had his back to the empty store, and his back to the lack of staff coming out to greet one of the founders of the establishment. "So it is, Abbie, so it is," He reached into his pocket and withdrew his wand from it. He muttered to himself and waved his wand. Suddenly the store glowed with a soft golden light, and the shelves and bins stocked themselves. After a moment or two the light receded, and the door to the store opened again.

"Aha! Mr. Lupin! You have returned. For longer than last time, I hope?" A slightly elderly man had come in, carrying a maroon colored apron over one arm. He was bent over from years of hard work and his snow white hair was thin and wispy. He wore thick glasses and gray robes, and then placed his maroon apron on over his robes and shuffled to behind the counter.

"Yes I'm back, Albert, and I don't know how long I plan on remaining open this time. At least for the length of the Hogwarts Term, if things don't go as planned," At he spoke, he jerked his head towards Abbie, who wasn't paying any attention to him and Albert at all. She was too busy exploring the shop.

"Ahhhh. Young Miss Black," Albert said understandingly, "Abigail is it?"

"Yup, that's me. Just, don't call me 'Abigail'. I'm only Abigail to teachers and when I'm in trouble with my Dad," the fourteen year old replied as she explored.

Albert laughed, "That's all you young kids want to be known by, nicknames. But if that's how you prefer it, Miss Abbie."

"Just Abbie." The girl said turning to the older man and her Godfather. "The 'Miss' makes me feel like an obnoxiously rich person who doesn't care about anyone other than herself."

"As you wish then, Abbie," Albert replied and turned back to Remus.

Abbie smirked and resumed her exploring. She could see off in the far back left hand corner there were some book shelves and a small table and chairs to read at. In the right back hand corner were some Quiddicth robes, some very out of date, others were the latest fashion and came in multi-colors. Along with the robes was a small broom display, only four brooms were left out on the floor at all times, and they ranged from a Cleansweep Six to the new, top of the line Nimbus 2001. In the front left hand corner was a prank and joke items display, Self Inking Quills, Zonko's products, and a various assortment of International Wizarding and Muggle magic tricks took up most of the front window on that side of the store.

The remainder of the store was devoted to candy. Lots and lots of candy. More candy brands and types than Abbie had ever seen. There were the muggle classics, Reese's Peanutbutter Cups, Charleston Chews in various flavors, Hershey's products, Crunch Bars, Oreos, and Dove chocolate. Then there was the wizard candy, brands that Abbie had never heard of took up most of the bins and shelving in that section. Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Ice Mice, Sugar Quills, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, Acid Pops, and the list went on and on. Abbie was tempted to help herself to a large handful of something call Ivonne's Ice Less Ice Cream. It was sold in packages that resembled ice cream cartons and came in all of your favorite flavors, but at the Marauder's store, they only sold five hundred of the one thousand flavors. After reading the label for the ingredients to check to see if she'd be allergic to anything in it, she saw that Ivonne was Bertie Bott's younger sister and had turned the flavored jelly beans into ice cream. And the flavors in stock looked absolutely delicious. Abbie was still a little leery of Bertie Bott's and Ivonne's Ice cream, she didn't want to get a cauliflower flavored bean.

She had learned the hard way she was allergic to that tasteless food, and Johnny learned never to ignore his younger cousin's protests of how a certain food made her feel, especially if she said she felt like an inflating balloon. Abbie continued to explore, slowing her already slow pace if she saw something interesting, and ignored the jingling of the bell over the door that announced customers to the small shop for the first time in years.

A steady stream of teenagers and younger children filed into Marauder's Magical Mischief Providers, Inc. and began to make a lot of noise once the older kids had spotted Remus.

"Oi! Jimmy! Mr. Moony's back and he has opened the shop again!" shouted one boy.

Another, most likely Jimmy, answered him, "I know that, you dolt! I'm right behind you; send the brat to tell people."

The first boy bent over to the height of his little brother, the 'brat' Jimmy had referred to, whispered something in his ear, and pointed to the door. The sandy haired child raced out the front door of the shop and carefully closed the door behind him before bellowing:

"MAURADER MISCHEIF INC. IS OPENED FOR BUISNESS! MR. MOONY'S BACK!" Once the little boy was finished yelling, he came back inside and held his hand out to his older brother. "Pay up Robbie," he said with a rather smug smile. Robbie stuck his hand into his pants pocket and removed three galleons, ten sickles, and ten knuts. He gave his brother two galleons, five sickles, and five knuts for his advertising skills.

Remus was impressed. These kids only knew him as Mr. Moony, but didn't know about 'his furry little problem'. Most of them attended the local magical school, Marauders' Magical Institution for Magical Education, a charter school that the Marauders and Lily had contributed to, as many of these families couldn't afford to go to Hogwarts, and so a local smaller school had been opened and approved of by the Ministry. The neighborhood mothers had even convinced Lily to be the first official headmistress of the school. Lily had tried to politely decline on the offer, but in the end agreed and gave up her job as an Unspeakable to educate children. It was a career that Lily had enjoyed thoroughly until she and James went into hiding.

"Hey! Uncle Remus?" Remus was pulled out of his musing by Abbie's voice and a sharp tug on his sleeve. "Where'd all of these kids come from?" She gestured to the second and third waves of kids coming into the shop.

Remus quickly looked them all over and replied. "From school, by the looks of their uniforms, kiddo."

"Oh. They go to school in the summer?" Abbie asked confused.

Remus chuckled, Abbie's reaction was similar to that of her father's when someone mentioned summer school around Sirius. "Only the students who need extra help on certain subjects that are on the OWLs and NEWTs," he replied.

Abbie nodded, pretending she knew what the OWLS and NEWTS were. "So, since its summer school, they get out late?" she asked.

Remus was startled and looked at his watch, "It's that late already? Come on, we're never going to make it to the Ministry at this rate." Remus waved at Albert to signal that he was going out and would return. He grabbed Abbie, and took her out onto the street, checking to see that the blue L.L. Bean backpack was still with her. Once they were outside, Remus apperated into the lobby of the Ministry of Magic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: In which our heroine FINALLY visits the Ministry of Magic **

Abbie looked around in amazement. The lobby to the Ministry of Magic was the largest thing she had ever seen, and this was saying something.

As a long time resident of the Beverly Hills area, she had seen a large amount of giant homes and buildings, none of which could compare with the Ministry. The walls were lined with large fire places, which would randomly burst into emerald green flames, and a person would emerge from the flames. Windows that were parts of offices went up for several stories, disappearing into the vast darkness above the lobby. In the center was a gold fountain with a witch, wizard, house elf, centaur, and goblin in solid gold. A little way from the fountain was a gated off area where a phone booth would descend into occasionally.

The hall was filled with witches and wizards of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The most notable of all of these people, was the large group of people who were dressed like muggle lawyers. The women had their hair pulled back into tight knots on the top of their heads; they wore grey business suits with black high heels, carried leather briefcases, and files and folders under the other arm. The men wore black robes with silver pinstripes, carried leather briefcases and wore shiny black dress shoes. Behind this group came a young woman with platinum blond hair falling down her back in a black dress with matching jacket. She was reading one of the files and not watching were she walked; as she read she was eating an apple, and readjusting her glasses. She narrowly missed walking into fifteen people before she reached the lifts. Behind the lawyerish people came the staff of people who worked for them; mainly the people who pushed the large carts of documents needed for a trial around.

The staff people halted the use of the lifts for quite awhile, giving Remus and Abbie enough time to pick up their visitors badges before getting on the lifts to the Auror's offices.

At least two dozen people filled the space; the two dozen were all wearing silver badges with their names and '_Sentencing Appeal_' on them. So Remus and Abbie found a seat and waited to be called into the office.

"What's up with all of these people, Uncle Remus?"

Remus looked down at his niece. "Today is the one day of the year you can appeal Ministry sentencing. They start today and work well into tomorrow morning to see if they can help you and release your loved one."

"Oh. Will it take long for us to be called in?"

Remus was about to reply as the door opened and one of the lawyer women came out. In a tired voice she called out "Remus Lupin, Abigail Black. Appealing on behalf of Sirius Black, convicted mass murderer."

Remus and Abbie stood up and followed the woman into the office. The inside of the office was cramped with two desks, three filing cabinets, and a water cooler in it. Now, with three lawyers, including the blond woman, a stenographer, several cardboard boxes full of court documents, and a pile of briefcases and empty coffee mugs occupied the already cramped room, and adding two extra chairs for Remus and Abbie, made it a tight fit for everyone in the room. Once they were all settled, the blond stood up from behind the desk.

"Mr. Lupin, Miss Black, I am Allie Woods. Your appeal was given to myself, and my colleagues this morning, and I have had little time to review the case and trial." _This of course explained why she had almost crashed a half dozen times earlier that day._ "May I introduce Ms. Amy Schlichtmann, her brother is tied up in a very famous and well publicized Muggle legal battle," Allie gestured to the woman who had called them in, "Lindsey McDonald, the newest member of our firm. He just graduated from Harvard Law School in Boston. Perhaps you have heard of it?"

Abbie nodded. "Yeah, that's _the best _law school on the East Coast. Probably the best law school in the US."

Lindsey nodded too, "I feel the same way, although I might be a little biased."

Allie cleared her throat to bring the topic back to the matter at hand. "Now we've looked over the basics of the case, and it's all in order."

Abbie laughed, "No it's not 'all in order', Miss Woods. There are quite a few important pages missing from that file."

Allie looked stunned. "That's impossible, Miss Black. There is nothing missing from these files."

Abbie opened up the blue backpack and withdrew the notebook, testimonies, police and Auror reports, and the will of her mother. She handed the pile over to Miss Woods with a look of annoyance on her face.

"You will find in the notebook the English terminology of each and every document, the Will included. There is nothing in any of these documents that shows my father confessed to all of the murders," Abbie shuddered as she said that "or that Versertium was used at all. There is no documentation of questioning of the suspect, and there is no documentation whatsoever that a trial was even considered for my father. For the love of God, they didn't even check him for the friggin' Dark Mark!"

At this point Abbie was starting to get hysterical; she wanted her father, and wanted to see him now. "If you've got any decent bone in your body you'd help me get my Daddy back. I haven't seen him since I was three! Three! I've lost my mom to that friggin' rat Pettigrew, her parents to an explosion at an archeological site in Egypt, and my Daddy is in Azkaban, and my only other living relative is probably going crazy back in Los Angeles, because someone tried to kill me! There was a person on a broom with a bomb or something outside the window of our fifth floor apartment! For Christ's sake, all I'm asking for is a little help from you people!"

Abbie was crying freely, she was very emotional and it took very little for her to get worked up; he face was red and blotchy, and her nose was running. She had the look on her face that was often on the face of a spoiled child who hadn't gotten their way; she crossed her arms and huffed. She would not be speaking directly to any lawyer for the rest of the day, Remus observed.

Miss Woods, Ms. Schlichtmann, and Mr. McDonald, on the other hand, looked positively dumb struck. A thirteen year old child had gone through court documents and simplified them into understandable terms herself. Allie threw the notebook to Lindsey who caught it and flipped through it quickly.

He was amazed; everything she said would be missing was missing. He compared it to the original documents, and the copy the firm had received, and saw that they too were missing the same documentation. Lindsey motioned to the other lawyers to come over to the second desk were he sat.

He spoke lowly so they wouldn't be overheard by Remus and Abbie. "She's right Al, any trial documentation was never included if it exists. The Senior Partners aren't going to be happy about you missing that crucial piece of evidence. This could be the wizard equivalent to your brother's case, Amy. Without the polluted water sources and dead kids, of course." He added hastily when Amy glared at him.

Allie raised an eyebrow at that, and Amy spoke. "The wizard equivalent to A Civil Action, this could be our big break guys. Jan will go nuts when I tell him I've got a court appointed case as big as his; and he took his voluntarily." The other lawyers nodded and the stenographer kept typing away to keep up with the conversations.

Allie broke away from the little gathering and spoke to Remus and Abbie. "We'll take the case; it might take longer than normal for this appeal to be made, seeing as he had already spent eleven years in Azkaban. It could take anywhere from a year to ten years to sort this out; and the longer it takes, I'm afraid that it will costs a lot of money if this case takes longer than three years."

Allie was obviously testing them; Remus looked at Abbie for her response to the proposal. Abbie just raised an eyebrow at the lawyers in front of her. "I've got the money for this. Just tell me when you can start reviewing case files and get my father out of prison." Her voice was cold and unfeeling, her eyes, which were grey like her father's shone out with a mixture of sadness, anger and fear.

Allie cleared her throat nervously. "We'll do our best, and then some to get your father a trial, Miss Black. We are going to start this afternoon once we are finished here." With that Abbie and Remus were escorted out of the office and Amy addressed the assembled witches, wizards, and squibs.

"This office has reached its quota of cases, if you still wish to make an appeal, please file to the first floor, where appointments can be made."

* * *

An hour later in the hotel room in the Leaky Caldron, Abbie learned briefly what an influence her father's family had on the wizarding world. If she was to walk into any shop, all she had to do was state her surname and would receive immediate service. Although Remus strongly suggested against it because it would draw unnecessary attention to herself.

As it was, the daughter of Sirius Black appearing out of nowhere on the Ministry's Appeal Day was somewhat suspicious; on his way back from the shop on Horizontal Alley, Remus had heard many theories on why Abbie had waited this long to make an appeal. The most outrageous of these claims wasn't that Abbie was the illegitimate child of Sirius Black, and his best friend's wife Lily Potter; but the fact that Abbie _wasn't_ his daughter, but _his lover_.

After a few days, the pair moved into the flat above Marauder Magical Mischief Providers, Inc., and Abbie was ready to get her supplies for the upcoming year. Remus signed off on the legal forms and such, but pretended to refuse to sign the Hogsmeade permission form. When Abbie had found out it was a joke, she refused to speak to Remus for a few days.

Finally Remus considered taking her to Diagon Alley to get her supplies; he had sold out of supplies, and the local school which was in session from July to February, didn't use many of the things required for Hogwarts students. So, one bright morning in August the pair set out to Diagon Alley for an all day shopping trip, leaving Albert and his daughter Jenny in charge of the store for the day.

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Little Bunny FuFu… He wants some reviews!

Reviews would be lovely after two updates in one day you know. Just a heads up that I'm going away for the holiday weekend (Independence Day for us Americans :] ) and coming home to reviews would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And because chapter 7 is still on my old computer and I'm praying and hoping that the hard drive will work when I hook it up to a monitor to look for it. But REVIEW please! This is my baby. I've been working on it for years, I'm already writing chapter 19. So just review please!

To my American readers, have a safe, healthy and Happy Fourth of July! :]


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